From: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
To: selinux@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>,
Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>,
Stephen Smalley <stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com>,
Ondrej Mosnacek <omosnace@redhat.com>,
Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>,
Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>,
Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>,
linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-unionfs@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2] selinux: preserve user SID across nested backing files
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:58:32 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260820175832.44512-1-kmehltretter@gmail.com> (raw)
SELinux saves the user file SID in a backing-file security blob so it
remains available after mmap() replaces vma->vm_file with a backing file.
For nested backing files (overlayfs over overlayfs, or FUSE passthrough
backed by overlayfs), user_file may itself be a backing file. Its
fsec->sid is the SID of the mounter that opened it, rather than the user
that opened the top-level file. mprotect() then checks fd { use } against
the mounter SID. This can incorrectly deny access without a domain
transition, or check the wrong target SID after one.
Copy the saved user SID when user_file is a backing file. Keep using the
regular file SID for the first backing layer.
With two nested overlayfs mounts and SELinux enforcing,
mprotect(PROT_READ) returns EACCES with an fd { use } denial against the
mounter SID. With this change, mprotect() succeeds.
Fixes: 82544d36b172 ("selinux: fix overlayfs mmap() and mprotect() access checks")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5.6-sol
Signed-off-by: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@gmail.com>
---
Changes in v2:
- Add selinux_file_user_sid() helper instead of open-coding the lookup
(Amir).
Tested on arm64 QEMU at fd6e2388a3ea with SELinux enforcing and two
nested overlayfs mounts. The policy omitted only
base_t -> mounter_t:fd { use } among the relevant cross-domain allows:
baseline: mprotect(PROT_READ) returned EACCES with that denial
patched: mprotect(PROT_READ) succeeded; test exited 0
This patch fixes SID propagation only. backing_file_user_path() still
resolves to the middle layer for a nested mapping, so the audit path and
inode do not correspond to uf_sid, and that layer's mounter is not
re-checked. Preserving the full user path likely needs a VFS-side change,
such as having backing_file_open() store file_user_path(user_file).
security/selinux/hooks.c | 9 ++++++++-
security/selinux/include/objsec.h | 2 +-
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/security/selinux/hooks.c b/security/selinux/hooks.c
index 1ead2eee1944..171b90412ff1 100644
--- a/security/selinux/hooks.c
+++ b/security/selinux/hooks.c
@@ -3843,13 +3843,20 @@ static int selinux_file_alloc_security(struct file *file)
return 0;
}
+static inline u32 selinux_file_user_sid(const struct file *file)
+{
+ if (unlikely(file->f_mode & FMODE_BACKING))
+ return selinux_backing_file(file)->uf_sid;
+ return selinux_file(file)->sid;
+}
+
static int selinux_backing_file_alloc(struct file *backing_file,
const struct file *user_file)
{
struct backing_file_security_struct *bfsec;
bfsec = selinux_backing_file(backing_file);
- bfsec->uf_sid = selinux_file(user_file)->sid;
+ bfsec->uf_sid = selinux_file_user_sid(user_file);
return 0;
}
diff --git a/security/selinux/include/objsec.h b/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
index 3c0a16ec978b..853f7266ed18 100644
--- a/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
+++ b/security/selinux/include/objsec.h
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ struct file_security_struct {
};
struct backing_file_security_struct {
- u32 uf_sid; /* associated user file fsec->sid */
+ u32 uf_sid; /* top-level user file fsec->sid */
};
struct superblock_security_struct {
base-commit: fd6e2388a3ea55e58cbbbef840c1d8aa2067dbb3
--
2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)
next reply other threads:[~2026-08-20 17:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-20 17:58 Karl Mehltretter [this message]
2026-08-20 19:12 ` [PATCH v2] selinux: preserve user SID across nested backing files Amir Goldstein
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